An online game of Carrom with live video feed of co-player and face-to-face: Effect on strike response time

We present strike response times comparison for a traditional and popular table top Indian game, Carrom, measured under three conditions: face-to-face/co-located live, virtual with live feed of the co-player and virtual without the feed of co-player. The game of Carrom, in Indian context, rates high on the social interaction experience and is played with extreme levels of engagement and involvement. Our preliminary study is a step towards understanding the role of virtual presence of a co-player in multi-player virtual games, in particular for familiar social games. Our findings indicate that viewing co-player live over video feed, while playing a multi-player game, brings in a game experience that is similar to face-to-face play. We also estimate the `socializing´ time to optimize network bandwidth for live streaming on mobile phone platforms or low bandwidth wired connections.